Anthony Edwards Having ZERO Dunks On The Season Is Both Depressing And A Great Look At To What Could Be A Huge Issue For The Timberwolves

The first two-ish weeks of the NBA season has been full of surprises. Teams like the Thunder/Jazz/Spurs have a better record than the defending champs, the Nets/Heat are multiple games under .500, the Blazers might actually be good, the list goes on and on.

Near the top of this list though has to be this one little tidbit from what's happening in the Twin Cities.

Anthony Edwards, you know, this guy

does not have a SINGLE dunk on the season. I'm not talking about posters, I'm talking about all dunks. One of the best dunkers in the league has been shutout through 8 games. If you were curious, Edwards had 58 total dunks last season and of the 72 games he played, he had at least one dunk in 44 of them. Given how he plays, the fact that he's 0-fer up until this point of the season is pretty surprising. There hasn't even been a fast break dunk or anything!

He was asked about this after the loss to PHX last night and I thought his answer was pretty interesting

If you read between the lines in what Ant is saying, I think it goes a long way in describing some of the issues we're seeing with the Timberwolves in their 4-4 start. The 2 center idea with Gobert/KAT isn't exactly working. Their spacing is a big time issue, and aside from DLo there really arent that many high level playmakers on the roster to counter lineups that include both KAT and Gobert. 

Up to this point in the year, the Wolves have the 24th ranked offense which is a pretty big drop from their 12th ranking last season. Their AST% has dropped from 12th to 17th as well. In terms of spacing/shooting, the Wolves are 22nd in 3PM after being 12th last year with that as well.

Notice the part where Ant says that when he gets into the paint it's clogged and that makes it hard to dunk? Well no shit. That's what happens when you have both KAT and Gobert on the floor at the same time. If you look at their current starting group, it's pretty obvious what is going on

Russell/Edwards/McDaniels/KAT/Gobert

have played 123 minutes together this season, by far the highest total on the team. Here's how they're doing

Ortg: 97.4

Drtg: 102.7

Net rating: -5.3

That 97.4 Ortg compared to the rest of the league would be dead last. Right now the Lakers own that spot with a Ortg of 100.3. It's not overly complicated as to why this might be the case when you realize both KAT/Gobert are almost always in the paint. It's not like Edwards isn't being aggressive, he leads the Wolves with 116 drives through 8 games which is nearly twice as many as the next closest guy. But for a player who says he needs a runway to pull off these crazy dunks, he's not exactly being put in a position to succeed given the lineups that he's playing with.

The question now becomes, how do the Wolves fix this? Is it as simple as finding more ways to stagger Gobert/KAT? The issue with that on some level is what that'll do to the Wolves defense. Maybe the trick is with lineups that have both Gobert/KAT, the Wolves make sure KAT spends more time on the perimeter? He's a generational three point shooter for a center, and with Gobert in the paint he can handle the offensive glass if needed. I just know they need to do something because their offense with this new look is not just terrible, it's robbing us as fans of awesome Anthony Edwards highlights.

As someone who doesn't really care about the Wolves wins and losses, I just want to see Ant do cool shit. It's basically all he's done since he entered the league and why watching the Wolves is fun to begin with. If you told me we would be in November and we haven't had a single Anthony Edwards dunk/awesome poster, there's no way I would have believed you. But now watching what this team looks like offensively, it makes complete sense.

So please, MIN, figure your shit out. I know you basically committed your entire future to the KAT/Gobert experience, but it cannot come at the expense of awesome Anthony Edwards dunks. If you're also not even going to win? The fine people of Minnesota deserve better.